[VHFcontesting] Why do you ...

[N1OFZ]

On Monday, April 7, 2003, at 11:53  PM, John K9IJ wrote:

>> o How can log submission be made easier?
>
> It can't be made much easier than using one of the many contest 
> programs that
> generate cabrillo logs, and sending an email. With real-time dup 
> checking in the
> contesting software, it's to the point that you can essentially submit 
> your logs
> within minutes of the end of the contest.

I usually keep quiet about this stuff but I feel the need to comment 
here.  First when
the ARRL switched from the old format to cabrillo I didn't send in a 
log for over a year.
Why?  Switching formats was a real drag.  Since my home grown logging 
app did not
support cabrillo (since I had not yet written support) it was not worth 
the effort to rewrite
the logs after the contests.

The second comment about using one of the many contest programs is not 
a good
argument.  Assumptions: everyone has a computer (and in the shack), 
everyone
runs Winblows, everyone has an Internet connection?  I'll concede that 
today there
are good logging apps for all platforms and many of them are free but 
it would
be very difficult to locate them if I didn't have access to the 
Internet.  How many of
you can tell me how to get my hands on a logging app for my RS6000 
running AIX
and CDE without the net?  Or how about my Alpha running NetBSD?  If I 
wanted to
get into contesting I'd take the $ and invest them in a good 
transverter or a DC-daylight
rig and get myself on VHF/UHF SSB/CW rather than spend the money on a 
computer
system so I could submit a log.

In closing, many local guys in my area drive out of the cities and to 
the mountain tops to
give a few Q's on FM for a few hours.  These guys don't hump a laptop 
around with them
(if they even have one) to log the 10-20 Q's they make.  They just do 
it for a little fun.
You will never get these guys to submit logs no matter how easy you try 
to make it.  Then
when this guy gets the contesting bug and gets a multimode rig he may 
not want to
submit that 500 point score he racked up for the whole world to see.  
Last year I operated
in 4 ARRL VHF/UHF contests yet only submitted logs for June and 
September.  Why, I
only felt like submitting logs in which I was able to give a good 
effort.

N1OFZ